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apkgbwhatsapps-blog · 6 years ago

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How to Send a Blank Message on WhatsApp

Send blank message on Whatsapp – Learn how to send a blank message on WhatsApp messenger? Top 3 methods to send blank message in WhatsApp cross-platform mobile messaging app.

WhatsApp is undoubtedly the best application which can be used to send text messages and multimedia files. The application is available for multiple platforms and comes with a lot of amazing features. After Whatsapp was acquired by Facebook many new features were added in the application like voice calling and it is expected that soon one will be able to make video calls via the app.

Send blank message Whatsapp

There are a lot of tricks which you can use on Whatsapp instant messaging and amaze your friends. One of the famous tricks of this messaging application is sending blank messages.Yes, you can now send

Yes, you can now send blank message in Whatsapp chat to your friends and surprise them. Today we are going to tell you how to send blank message in Whatsapp.

gbwhatsapp apk 6.65

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How to Extend WhatsApp License for Free How to Send Whatsapp Message to All Contacts at Once How to Fix WhatsApp Video Compression Problem How to Use WhatsApp on Desktop with Google Chrome Top 3 Methods to Send Blank Message in WhatsApp Although, there are plenty of simple ways to send blank message in Whatsapp are available on the Web. But if you are looking for only the most convenient and active methods then this guide is just perfect for you.

Here, we are sharing the top 3 step by step methods which will help you in sending blank messages on WhatsApp Messenger. These all three methods are tested by us and work properly on all devices. So, let’s have a look on the methods to send blank message in WhatsApp chat:

Method 1: How to Send Black Message on Whatsapp using PC If you are using Windows computers then you might already know about this method. You can take help of your Windows computer for sending blank messages. All you have to do is follow the steps shared below and find out how to send a blank message on whatsapp chat:

Step (1): First of all, you have to open Notepad text editor on your computer.

Step (2): Now you have to type “Alt + 0160” or “Alt + 255” using the Num pad (Located in the right-side of your keyboard). Typing these digits will add a blank space in Notepad.

Step (3): Once you have entered the digits and you see that a blank space is created, save the file and transfer it to your android smartphone or tablet. You can transfer it to any other device too which has Whatsapp installed on it.

Step (4): Now go to “File manager” or the location where the file is stored. Open the file and copy the contents which are present in the file. Once the content is copied open Whatsapp and select the contact to which you want to send blank message. Paste the content and hit Send button. Blank message will be sent to your friend.

how to send blank message in whatsapp

Thus, you can see how simple is to create and send blank message in WhatsApp chat using PC.

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How to Backup and Restore Contacts on Android? How to Transfer Contacts from iPhone to Android Method 2: Send Blank Message in WhatsApp using Blank Character This is the second method which makes to our guide of how to send a blank message in WhatsApp. We will use an Arabic character in this method. This Arabic character is actually not identified by Whatsapp which leads to a blank message for the recipient. To find out how this character looks like you have to use the Unicode of this character which is 0xFDFF.

whatsapp blank character

The blank character is placed in between the “ ” (double quote). Copy the content and paste it in Whatsapp. Make sure that you remove the double quotes before you hit the Send button. Once you have tapped on the Send button you will see that the message delivered is blank. Download blank character by following this link→

→ Download Blank Status

Method 3: Send Blank Message in WhatsApp using Noword App Sending blank messages in Whatsapp using android apps is one of the simplest ways, so to send blank message in WhatsApp we are going to use an android application which is called Noword app.

You can easily Download Noword app from the Google Play Store. Once you have downloaded and installed this application you just have to tap the Send button. As soon as you will tap on the send button the app will ask you how to complete the operation. You have to select Whatsapp from the list.

how to send a blank message on whatsapp

Just after the selection, Whatsapp will be opened on your android device. Now you can select the contact to which you are planning to send blank message in Whatsapp chat. The message delivered will be blank.

Conclusion So, these are the top three best methods which make to our guide of how to send blank message on WhatsApp. We hope that you were able to send blank message in Whatsapp to your friends and fool them after following our guide.

We will share many other cool tricks like this in future. If you were not able to send blank message in Whatsapp or are having any problem please use the comments section below to clear them. Do you think that sending blank messages in Whatsapp chat are quite easy now?

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gbwhatsappps-blog · 6 years ago

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GBWhatsApp: Hide Blue Tick, Second Tick, Last Seen & More On WhatsApp

Have you heard about the GBWhatsApp, if yes then you might get a question in your mind that, what is GBwhatsapp? So, it is a moded Android APK file of official WhatsApp and here in this tutorial, we let you know how to use it. Before diving into it lets know who needs the GBWhatsApp. If you are using the WhatsApp too much and you show online, and want to hide that then the GBWhatsApp is the best option. Becuase showing all day online may cause some problem to your parents or relatives or officials. The other things which it offers are: you can hide your blue tick, second tick, online status, Writing status, and more from other Whatsapp users but you can see others without letting them see yours.

GBWhatsApp can run on the same Android smartphone without removing the original Whatsapp. It is the best ever moded app for the WhatsApp users to hide last seen, online status and other hacks. You can use your own custom themes, colors and more. You can also see the GBWhatsAPP FAQ from here: LINK

Features of GBWhatsApp Moded Apk A custom version of Latest version of WhatsApp Disable internet only for WhatsApp with help of inbuilt DND features of WhatsApp Revoke multiple WhatsApp messages Schedule WhatsApp messages inbuilt feature Hide Online Status to show to everyone offline while chatting. Gives the ability to send videos up to 50 MB. Up to 35 characters name can be set for WhatsApp groups Clipboard to Copy status of others. Hide Blue Ticks even after reading the Message for contacts and groups. Hide Second Tick for contacts and group even after the message delivered It allows adding 600 people in the broadcast group Original WhatsApp allow only 139 characters long status but this one gives 255 characters Supports 100+ language On the fly translation of chats into other languages Custom theme options Hide Blue Microphone when you open voice messaged for contacts and group Hide View Status Privacy in which even after viewing the status of other users or contacts but your name will not appear to them that you have seen their status. Custom and new Emojis You can also set your online status for 24 hours Can use along with official WhatsApp as Dual WhatsApp No ban issues Hide Writing info while typing a message for contacts and group Hide Recording Status when you recording for contacts and group Block calls for Specific Contacts Can send 90 images in one click Can copy the selected text of Whatsapp messages Lock some personal chat of your WhatsApp without any third party app. Hide Last Seen for only selected Contacts. Send Gif Images, disable voice calling if you want. Change ticks color and style Media demo And much more…

How To install GBWhatsApp with original WhatsApp on Android Step 1: As the GBWhatsapp is a modded APK file for Android platform and that why it is not available in the Google Play store. So, the question is now, Where to download the GbWhatsapp.

You might find so many websites to download the GBWhatsApp when you search it on Google. But the official website to download the GBWhatsApp is official-plus.com or gbmods.co. Visit and download the APK file.

Step 2: After downloading the APK file transfer it to your smartphone; Go to file manager tap on the GBWhatsApp APK file and it will prompt to Install. If the Unknown source is disabled in your smartphone it will ask to enable it. Generally, it locates under Setting -> Security. Check the option “Unknown sources” and tap OK on the prompt message.

Install GBWhatsApp with original WhatsApp on Android

How to set up, run and restore original WhatsApp data & chats backup to GBwhatsapp Step 1: Finally you will see Dual WhatsApp on your Android smartphone.

Dual WhatsAPP

Step 2: Before open, run and setup GBWhatsApp we will copy or backup our original WhatsApp, data, media files and Chats to GBWhatsApp. For doing this go to file manager and find out WhatsApp folder.

Open the WhatsApp folder and tap + hold to copy the Databases folder.

back and restore WhatsApp backup to GBwhatsapp

Step 3: Now go back and find the folder name GBWhatsApp, open it and paste the copied database folder here. Please see the screenshot for more info…

Install the GBWhatsApp

Step 4: Finally we have copied all data, chats and media files of our main WhatsApp to the GBWhatsAPP, now its time to install it.

1. Open GBWhatsApp and tap on Agree and Continue. You will also see an option RESTORE but that will not work right now and shows can’t find any backup /SDcard/ GBwhatsApp because it is the first time we are installing the GBWhatsApp.

2. Enter your phone number which you uses in your original WhatsApp. Now tap on option COPY WHATSAPP DATA this option will copy all media files from the original WhatsApp folder to the GBWhatsapp.

Note: If Copying media files don’t work you can also directly copied the Media folder form the Original WhatsApp folder to the GB Whatsapp.

3. Tap on the Next and continue.

Step 5: This moded app is based on the original WhatsApp that’s why all the rest steps are the same as the original one. To restore the backup in GBWhatsapp click on the restore when it shows. For more info please see the screenshots.

how to restore gbwhatsapp backup

How to Remove or disable WhatsApp Blue Ticks or Read Receipts in Android The GB WhatsApp which is based on the WhatsApp (original) is installed, now its time to play around with it.

Step 1: To remove or disable the WhatsApp Blue Tick read receipts, we need to open the GBWhatsapp.

Tap on the 3 dots given at the top right corner Select the Privacy Option and tap the Blue Ticks If you want to Hide the Blue ticks for contacts then select the contact and for WhatsApp groups select the group. In this way, you can disable your delivery report on the WhatsApp for your friends. Note: People can’t see your blue ticks read receipts but you can see everyone’s blue tick.

How to Hide Online Status in GBWhatsApp Android The second benefit of this moded WhatsApp which people are desperately looking for is a way to disable the online status for everyone while chatting online. In the original Whatsapp it is not possible but on GB it is:

Go to Privacy->Hide Online Status and Whatsapp restart automatically to apply this mod feature.

Hide online status on GBWhatsapp

How to freeze last seen on the GBwhatsapp To freeze last seen on the GBwhatsapp follow the below-given steps:

Go to Whatsapp settings. Tap on Accounts-> Privacy. Select the Last Seen option and make it visible for everyone.GBWhatsapp last seen freeze Now go to the GbWhatsapp privacy section and tab on the option Hide Online Status.Hide online status on GBWhatsapp As soon as you tap on the Hide Online status all your contact will see the freeze last seen. The time visible in the last less will be the time when you have selected to Hide Online status option. How to hide double tick on GBwhatsapp Android The double tick on Whatsapp show that your message has been delivered but for some personal reason if you want to show single tick but still online then again go to Privacy Settings->Second Tick and you successfully disable the double grey click on the WhatsApp.

double tick on whatsapp Android

How To Hide Writing Status (typing... ) info while writing text on GB Whatsapp To Hide the Writing status in GBWhatsApp go to Privacy and tap on Writing Status, and it will disable the —typing… symbol while typing text to someone.

How to download GBwhatsapp themes The moded app also offers a way to customize your WhatsApp interface theme. To download theme on GBWhatsapp go to GB settings ->Download themes and choose the theme which you want to use and after that just tap on the APPLY option to implement on your WhatsApp.

You can also use the custom theme on the GB Whatsapp from the option MORE just given below the Download themes option, for more info see the screenshot given below.

Download themes in GBWhatsapp

The sample of themes available on GBWhatsapp.

Install and download GBWhastAPP theme

How to update GBwhatsapp latest version of Android To update the GBWhatsApp to latest version you need to go GB settings-> Updates-> Check for Updates. If this option does not work then you can use the Web Download which opens the GB Whatsapp official website to download and update it to the latest version.

update GBwhatsapp latest version

How to Disable WhatsApp calls on GBWhatsApp? Tap on the three dots given on the right top side and from the pop-up select the GB Settings option and then Other Mods after that Disable Voice Calls. Once you select that you will get three options:

Enable All Calls Block Calls with Showing Ringing to Opp Person Block Calls without Showing Ringing to Opp Person. Select the one you want to do.

<a href="http://apkgb.com/how-to-hide-last-seen-on-gb-whatsapp/" >Block calls on GBWhatsApp</a>

Is GBwhatsapp safe to use? Yes, GBWhatsapp and Whatsapp+ Plus are two modded app for Android smartphone based on original WhatsApp and both can use without any fear of account ban.

Basically, stylesheet information in Android APK is not encrypted while the codes are encrypted. So, this moded app is using non-encrypted code to perform some customization on the interface and built-in feature of the WhatsApp. But your message sending and receiving still uses the original WhatsApp server, that is why the GBWhatsApp is fully secure. But you should download it only from its official website.

We tried to explain all main features of this app but there are lots of other things which you can do such lock some particular chat, customize the header & chat color, custom bubbles for chats, custom ticks & colors, and lot more…

ALSO SEE: How to Save WhatsApp Video and Image Status on Smartphone

If you have any questions or doubt regarding this moded Whatsapp APK file then please let us know, the comment box is all yours.

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gbwhatsappmods-blog · 6 years ago

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GBWhatsApp: Hide Blue Tick, Second Tick, Last Seen & More On WhatsApp

Install GBWhatsApp with original WhatsApp on Android

How to set up, run and restore original WhatsApp data & chats backup to GBwhatsapp Step 1: Finally you will see Dual WhatsApp on your Android smartphone.

Dual WhatsAPP

Step 2: Before open, run and setup GBWhatsApp we will copy or backup our original WhatsApp, data, media files and Chats to GBWhatsApp. For doing this go to file manager and find out WhatsApp folder.

Open the WhatsApp folder and tap + hold to copy the Databases folder.

back and restore WhatsApp backup to GBwhatsapp

Step 3: Now go back and find the folder name GBWhatsApp, open it and paste the copied database folder here. Please see the screenshot for more info…

Install the GBWhatsApp

Step 4: Finally we have copied all data, chats and media files of our main WhatsApp to the GBWhatsAPP, now its time to install it.

2. Enter your phone number which you uses in your original WhatsApp. Now tap on option COPY WHATSAPP DATA this option will copy all media files from the original WhatsApp folder to the GBWhatsapp.

Note: If Copying media files don’t work you can also directly copied the Media folder form the Original WhatsApp folder to the GB Whatsapp.

3. Tap on the Next and continue.

how to restore gbwhatsapp backup

How to Remove or disable WhatsApp Blue Ticks or Read Receipts in Android The GB WhatsApp which is based on the WhatsApp (original) is installed, now its time to play around with it.

Step 1: To remove or disable the WhatsApp Blue Tick read receipts, we need to open the GBWhatsapp.

Go to Privacy->Hide Online Status and Whatsapp restart automatically to apply this mod feature.

Hide online status on GBWhatsapp

How to freeze last seen on the GBwhatsapp To freeze last seen on the GBwhatsapp follow the below-given steps:

double tick on whatsapp Android

You can also use the custom theme on the GB Whatsapp from the option MORE just given below the Download themes option, for more info see the screenshot given below.

Download themes in GBWhatsapp

The sample of themes available on GBWhatsapp.

Install and download GBWhastAPP theme

update GBwhatsapp latest version

Enable All Calls Block Calls with Showing Ringing to Opp Person Block Calls without Showing Ringing to Opp Person. Select the one you want to do.

Block calls on GBWhatsApp

Is GBwhatsapp safe to use? Yes, GBWhatsapp and Whatsapp+ Plus are two modded app for Android smartphone based on original WhatsApp and both can use without any fear of account ban.

ALSO SEE: How to Save WhatsApp Video and Image Status on Smartphone

If you have any questions or doubt regarding this moded Whatsapp APK file then please let us know, the comment box is all yours.

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suzanneshannon · 5 years ago

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Devising the Cloak of Invisibility in JavaScript

Steganography. The art of hiding something right under your nose. For as long as humans have been alive, we’ve been trying to hide things — whether it’s our last slice of pizza or the location of a buried treasure. Do you remember the cool invisible lemon ink trick, where we’d write the secret message with lemon and heat the paper to reveal the grand secret? Well, that is what Steganography is, in a nutshell, allowing us to easily conceal messages just by hiding their existence.

In the early 1900s, German spies infiltrated the citizens of France in the name of trade. Their motives, however, were to observe the details of the French defense system and to aid the Germans to invade France. The cleverly designed French defense system maintained utmost confidentiality even amongst each region, making it difficult for one spy to gather all the information. This required multiple spies to gather information from each region and together design their game plan. The meeting place must be communicated only on that very day for high security but how was it supposed to reach all the regions within a day? They chose the newspaper, fast but a very insecure public channel! But the Germans already thought of that.They published the secret meeting spot in the weather report for the day.

Taking the first letter of every word and what do we get – the meeting place

“New Rue des Thermopyles Heil Hitler”!.

Back then Invisible ink, now Invisible characters.

Now in the age of information, the most important place for communication is the internet. Messaging apps like messenger, Whatsapp, iMessage, and Social media like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. How can we apply the same problem here and solve it now? Well, we could start with zero-width ‌characters.

’Copy me‌‌‌‌‌‘- paste this quote in https://www.textmagic.com/free-tools/unicode-detector to see the ZWCs hiding right in front of you the whole time.

Zero Width Characters are non-printing characters, a part of the Unicode table. As the name suggests they don’t even show their presence. They are used to enable line wrapping in long words, joining emojis, combining two characters into a ligature, keeping them from joining, etc.

The characters zwj join the emoji’s but they are not visible

These characters have increasingly found their way in text-hiding, their complete invisibility being a remarkable selling point. They cannot be blocked as they are integral in multiple languages and emojis. And it also turns out that ZWCs aren’t the only characters which are invisible, eg. Invisible separator — U+2063.

Table that contains mostly used invisible characters.

One small problem with this table tho! Gmail blocks U+200B ( Zero width space ). Not to mention, Twitter is known for blacklisting unnecessary invisible characters, none of the characters in the table except U+200C, U+200D and U+180e works. So we now have three characters!

Oh, wait, U+180e is not invisible and renders weirdly on iOS devices. We are now down to only 2 characters.

Tearing apart the Unicode table, testing each possible Invisible character for its cross-platform / web invisibility, we are able to add 4 more characters to our arsenal, a total of 6 invisible characters that we can now use to hide our secrets in strings.

const zwc = ['‌', '‍', '⁠', '⁢', '⁣', '⁤'] // 200c,200d,2060,2062,2063,2064 The digital equivalent invisible ink

Now to use the invisible ink, all we have to do is given a secret ‘hi’ we need to represent it in binary, i.e., 01101000 011010001. Then take 4ZWCs and map them to a two-bit truth table i.e, 00-200c,01-200d,10-2060,2062-11.Use the truth table to convert the binary to an invisible stream and embed it in any cover message anywhere.

Encrypting the hidden content

What if the intruder somehow detects the presence of the hidden characters and tries to brute force the truth table to crack the secret out.

This is where Kerckhoff’s principle comes in:

An ideal cryptosystem should be secure even if everything about the system is exposed to the public except the secret key.

Therefore we need some sort of a key to lock our secrets. For this a password-based key generation function can be used to yield a strong key which in turn is used to encrypt our messages. AES-CTR stream cipher with a random IV and salt can be used to encrypt the hidden secret as it has an added advantage of not requiring padding unlike block ciphers as it increases the length of the message.

Compression

Now given we’re doing so much with encryption, we definitely need the maximum compression possible.

As you can see, even though we had six ZWC characters only 4 were used as 6 is not a power of 2.The two extra characters (U+2063, U+2064) could be used to do an additional layer of abstracted Huffman compression reducing redundancy. After the secret has been converted to ZWCs, the two most repeating ZWCs in the stream are determined, say U+200D and U+2060. Now every two consecutive occurrences of U+200Ds and U+2060s could be replaced with one U+2063 or U+2064. This saves a lot as redundancy was frequently observed.

We now have two layers of compression making the best use of the 6 invisible characters! Awesome!

So combining all of these, two of my friends and I built StegCloak, a pure JavaScript steganography module designed in a functional programming style to achieve what is said above.

Here’s a quick demo of it :

youtube

We hope you enjoy it as much as we did building it!

Checkout StegCloak in Github or visit https://stegcloak.surge.sh.

The post Devising the Cloak of Invisibility in JavaScript appeared first on David Walsh Blog.

Devising the Cloak of Invisibility in JavaScript published first on https://deskbysnafu.tumblr.com/

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powersmpp · 5 years ago

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Jasmin sms web interface

Managing Jasmin SMS engine over command line has never been easy. To make your life easier, we have developed a web interface for Jasmin SMS Gateway. This (GUI based) web interface allows you manage customers, providers in just few mouse clicks.

We have also added a configuration module with PDU logger to record entire traffic in database. PDU logger makes troubleshooting a piece of cake.

Our solution can also be customized for HLR Dip for MCC and MNC or DND filtration through external database using intercepeter. Intercepters can be created from easy to use web-interface itself.

Some times you also need to send fake DLR in test environment. Fake DLR can be configured and customize as per requirement.

A live demo of Jasmin Web interface (GUI) is available with the following credentials:

URL : www.powersmpp.com/jasmin

username : jasmin

password : abc12345

WhatsApp to know more: 919909945175

In case you are looking for a B2C portal which works in sync with Jasmin Engine, where traffic can be stored in adatabase, you can also explore our proprietory application iTextHub, which is highly compatible to work with Jasmin SMS Gateway and it can solve the problems faced by agreegators .

iTextHub is a best fit to work with Jasmin SMS gateway in few minutes. Following are the feature list of iTextHub:

(A) User Control Panel (UI)

1. Compose SMS – Manual Entery of mobile numbers – Auto show hide group contact if user clicks on enter number text box – Import numbers from File (Txt, csv, xsl) – Import numbers from Groups – Option to select From Header (Sender id) from dropdown – Option for sending Flash SMS – Option for scheduling – Option for filtering out duplicate number – Character Counter – Option to Send Long SMS – Option to send Unicode Message

2. SMS From Excel SMS from Excel is designed to upload data from excel file directly. It has there variants: (a) Upload only number (suitable if the message is common) (b) Upload numbers and message (suitable if the user wants to send variable message to each number) (c) Upload Excel file with multiple field and design dynamic message based on different columns(we call it online excel plugin)

3. Sender Id (From address or Mask) manager – Add Senderid for approval – Edit Senderid – Delete senderid

4. Contact Management – Add Group – view Groups with total contact count – Short Link to send message to group – Bulk Import Contacts Wizard (Copy and Paste, From file , Manual entry) – Export existing contacts – Black List Manager

5. Reporting – Dashboard reporting (Data view and Graphical view) with last 3 days of data – Campaign wise reporting – Detail reporting of each campaign – List view reporting (complete DRL irrespective of campaign) – Date wise / Time wise filter – Sort DLR on various fields – Export DLR in excel – Separate Scheduled SMS reporting

6. Transactions – Details Credit transaction detail

7. Settings – Change password – Service support request ticket (an email sent to support team)

8. Top Navigation with handy tools – Insta Credit Balance – New Alerts Count posted by Admin (shows details on single click) – Ability to see specific user alert or general alerts – Change profile – Quick link to help center – Log off button

(B) Admin module

(1) User Dash board – Add new user manually – Auto complete search by username – Manage user profile – Multiple Tabs to manage API, Sender id, View DLR, Manage Credits, Assign SMPP Account – Option to activate/deactivate API – Option to white list IP – Option to change routing – Option to allow Dynamic Sender id – Option to Lock/ Un-lock account – Option to apply SPAM Filter for SMS Content

(2) View All Clients – View consolidate details of all client – Export client – Sort clients

(3) Transfer Credits

(4) Manage Notification – Configure notification for individual user – Configure notification for global users

(5) Site Branding

– Set Company logo – Option to add support email / phone – Configure domain/ sub-domain – SMPP Setting for sending email communication

(1) Add SMPP Route – Add multiple SMPP Gateway – View TCP connection state

(2) Start SMPP Server on particular port – Configure SMPP Server – View connected User

(3) SMPP Service manager – Start/Stop SMPP Client – Start/Stop SMPP Server – Start/Stop Scheduling Service – Start/Stop DLR Service

(D) Advance billing module

– Manage Countries – Manage Network Operators – Manage Network Prefix – Manage Cost per network – Manage pricing plan and network for every user – Manage base currency and display currency conversion

(E) Two way SMS module (Not included in basic application. Can be purchased as Add-on) – Configure inboud (MO) connection – URL forwarding – Option for forward inbound message to end user using SMPP – Assign Long-code/Short code

Feel free to reach us at +91-9909945175 for any query

Skype: hexwireless.business7

#JasminSMSengine #JasminSMSGateway #JasminWebinterface #JasminEngine #SMPPServer #JasminSMSBilling

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linkerscreative-blog · 6 years ago

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The Most Useful Websites of 2018 & 2019 on Internet

Looking for the best websites on the internet?

If you are seeking out the most useful websites on the internet then we have brought you the complete list of best websites for everyone. These are the most useful websites on the internet and they will help you to become smarter, increase productivity and also help you learn new skill sets. These random useful websites have easy memorable & cool URLs. netflixroulette.net– find something random to watch on Netflix. wtfsigte.com/– find a place to eat (warning: NSFW language) earny.com– shop as usual & let earny help you automatically get money back on purchases when prices drop. fpage.co– daily links to enlighten and educate you. (warning: NSFW language) ninite.com– download all the free software you want, all at the same time. joinhoney.com– get the lowest price for any product on the internet. pcloud.com– 20gb of free online storage. appsumo.com– get the top software and marketing tools for pennies on the dollar. keybr.com– learn how to type without looking at your keyboard. oldversion.com– get old versions of the software. hemingwayapp.com– find out how readable your text is and write better emails and articles. deadmansswitch.net– have emails sent when you die? acorns.com– budget your money and turn it into more money. roadtrippers.com– plan your route with the best lodging and attractions. duckduckgo.com– finally, a search engine that is not following/tracking you. padmapper.com– maps out possible apartments/homes that fit your search criteria. hotjar.com– allows you to discreetly record a screencast of your website visitor’s browser actions. printfriendly.com– make any webpage print friendly. printwhatyoulike.com– print precisely what you want from any webpage. privnote.com– write a note to someone that will self-destruct after they read it. freecycle.org– a network of people giving away free stuff in their towns across the world. couchsurfing.com– crash on someone’s couch anywhere in the world. recipepuppy.com– search for recipes based on the ingredients you have. pipl.com– a search engine for finding people anywhere. Kinda crazy weird. invanto.com– build your own membership e-courses, teach anything, and sell them online. newsmap.jp– most popular news headlines. radioreference.com– listen to radio channels across the US. viral-loops.com– kindly force your website visitors to share your content and posts. wolframalpha.com– a computational knowledge engine. heavens-above.com– follow satellites and constellations. whatismyip.com– figure out your i.p. Address. spreeder.com– speed read any webpage, and improve reading speed and comprehension for free. simplynoise.com– hate dead silence? Listen to white noise. bluehost.com– get a professional website and a free domain. ptable.com– an interactive periodic table. mailchimp.com– send beautiful emails. searchtempest.com– search all of craigslist, eBay and more with just one search. join.me– free screen sharing and online meetings. ifttt.com– the freeway to get all your apps and devices talking to each other. woorank.com– find out what your website is missing, how you can improve it, and how to make Google recognize it better. scribblemaps.com– draw on maps then share them with friends. shortpixel.com– compress & optimize your website’s images to make it run faster. rhymer.com– an online rhyming dictionary. homestyler.com– design your dream home in 3d. wetransfer.com– an easy an free way to send big files. pastebin.com– a place to paste text. idlekeyboard.com– make it sound like you are hard at work. buzzfollow.com– growth hack your Instagram account. seatguru.com– find out where the best seats are on your plane flight. awardwallet.com– track frequent flyer miles and travel/hotel reward programs and calculate the best possible rewards. twofoods.com– compare two foods. gasbuddy.com– find local gas prices. sleepyti.me– plan out your sleep schedule better. ripetrack.com– find out when certain fruits are ripe. betterproposals.io– send your clients amazing and beautiful proposals free for a month. paperbackswap.com– swap books with others. swole.me– plan out your meals better. weatherspark.com– a graphical look at the weather. udemy.com– various skill-based courses taught by experts in their field with certificates of completion. displaypurposes.com– the best place to find Instagram hashtags. en.writecheck.com– correct grammar and check for plagiarism. wakeupdialer.com– send yourself a wake-up call. clickfunnels.com– build sales funnels to turn online traffic into commissions. dialahuman.com– talk to an actual person instead of a machine when you call customer service. loads.in– find out how long it takes websites to load. calorieking.com– find nutrition information on various foods. manualslib.com– a database of pdf help manuals for various products. canva.com– create professional quality graphics, designs, and flyers for free. keepmeout.com– lock yourself out of time-wasting websites. glassdoor.com– research what it is like to work with certain companies. shouldiremoveit.com– find out which applications you should remove from your computer. place.to– place any photo or image on a cell phone or laptop mockup etc. buffer.com– schedule your social media content. quuu.com– content suggestion platform that connects to your buffer queue thesocialcampus.com– the top resource for mind, body & business topics. Thank you for reading, be sure to share this post if you enjoyed it. You can also win $100 each month by sharing our blog posts. Also See: 50 Ways to Get Quality Backlinks To Your Blog in 2018

Top 5 most useful websites of all time (2018 & 2019)

The current internet population outflow is being grabbed by the websites like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Whatsapp, Snapchat and even Instagram which in turn blights the hopes of the growing web portals which are known by no one or a lesser amount of people. Nowadays, the internet is being overpowered by the above-mentioned websites and the web portals that should have been amongst the top leaders of the internet are being suppressed. The inflow of internet population is so less on these websites that such digital platforms are barely surviving due to no sponsorships and allocation of advertisements. So here are some of the top 10 most useful websites of all time (2018) which you wished you knew earlier: Pdf drive: Pdf drive is a web portal which contains almost all possible books in the form of pdf. You could find the most trending books on their homepage. The website allows its users to even manually type and search for the book they are looking for. The users could also browse from the categories mentioned on the right side of the portal like history, finance, education etc.

Website: https://www.pdfdrive.net/ Codingame: Codingame is a website which allows the budding programmers to code and create a full-fledged game online. The website is free to use and has no limits to its usage. It also allows the users to code a multiplayer game. It has over 25 coding languages that a coder can use to formulate a game.

Website: https://www.codingame.com/start Cymath: Cymath is an online maths problem solver with a detailed description of steps. It appears more like a search bar and indeed it works the same as one but is designed only for mathematical dubiety. You could take help with problems related to differentiation, expand, factor, graph, integrate, simplify and equations. It also has an app for ios and android.

Website: https://www.cymath.com/ Gwiki: It is a website that is a boon for the students who copy their documents from Wikipedia. It helps the user to eliminate connected links from the Wikipedia while copying the information all at once. This could be useful for homework assignments and official presentations as sometimes the blue hyperlinks could be annoying in nature.

Website: http://www.gwiki.io/ Instructables: It is an online web portal that is devoted to the idea of DIY (do it yourself). It is a website that gives and explains the steps to how to craft and create something out of nothing with a novel and creative idea. This website has been on the internet platform for the last 10 years but it is flabbergasting that people still don’t know about this website. You could search for ideas related to anything in the search bar given in the middle of the website or you could browse the categories including technology, workshop, craft, home etc. Also Read: How to Create a Free Blog on Blogger.com Blogging Platform

Website: https://www.instructables.com/ Here are some other most useful websites on the internet that you may not know about yet, but you’ll definitely be using them in 2019 sooner or later. These websites, well most of them, (some are just ridiculously silly) provide some amazing solutions to everyday problems and hurdles. Everything from creating print-friendly pages online, planning out your meals, and even sending yourself a free wakeup call every morning. Simply click on the title to conveniently open the websites in a new tab. archive.is — take a snapshot of any web page and it will exist forever even if the original page is gone. autodraw.com — create freehand doodles and watch them magically transform into beautiful drawings powered by machine learning. fast.com — check the current speed of your internet connection. slides.com — create pixel-perfect slide decks and broadcast your presentations to an audience of any size from anywhere. screenshot.guru — take high-resolution screenshots of web pages on mobile and desktops. dictation.io – accurate and quick voice recognition in your browser itself. reverse.photos — upload an image and find similar pictures on the web. copychar.cc – copy special characters and emojis that aren’t on your keyboard. codeacademy.com – the best place to learn to code online. noisli.com — ambient noises to help you improve focus and boost productivity. iconfinder.com – millions of icons for all kinds of projects. Also, try icons8.com and flaticon.com. jotti.org – scan any suspicious file or email attachment for viruses. wolframalpha.com – gets answers directly without searching flightstats.com – track flight status at airports worldwide. unsplash.com – the best place to download images absolutely free. Also Read: 4 Best Link Building Techniques for 2018 videos.pexels.com — an online library of free HD videos you can use everywhere. Also, see videvo.net. everytimezone.com – a less confusing view of the world time zones. e.ggtimer.com – a simple online timer for your daily needs. random.org – pick random numbers, flip coins, and more. earn.com — replace your email with a mailbox that pays when you reply to someone’s email. myfonts.com/whatthefont – upload an image of any text and quickly determine the font family. fonts.google.com – the best collection of open source fonts that you can use anywhere without restrictions. fontstruct.com — draw and build your own fonts and use them in any application. calligraphr.com — transform your handwriting into a real font. regex.info – find data hidden in your photographs youtube.com/webcam — broadcast yourself live over the internet without any complicated setup. remotedesktop.google.com — access other computers or allow others to remote access your computer over the internet. homestyler.com – design from scratch or re-model your home in 3d. pdfescape.com – lets you quickly edit pdf in the browser without Acrobat. draw.io – create diagrams, wireframe and flowcharts in the browser. web.skype.com — make voice and video calls in your browser with Skype. onlineocr.net – recognize text from scanned pdf – see other OCR tools. wetransfer.com – for sharing really big files online. file.pizza — peer to peer file transfer over webrtc without any middleman. snapdrop.com — like apple airdrop but for the web. Share files directly between devices in the same network without having to upload them to any server first. hundredzeros.com – the site lets you download free kindle books. app.grammarly.com — check your writing for spelling, style, and grammatical errors. noteflight.com – print music sheets, write your own music online ( review). translate.google.com – translate web pages, pdf and office documents. kleki.com – create paintings and sketches with a wide variety of brushes. similarsites.com – discover new sites that are similar to what you like already. bubbl.us – create mind-maps, brainstorm ideas in the browser. color.adobe.com – get colour ideas, also extract colours from photographs. canva.com — make beautiful graphics, presentations, resumes and more with readymade template designs. Also Read: 5 Secrets of How to Create a Viral Blog Post lmgtfy.com – when your friends are too lazy to use google on their own. midomi.com – when you need to find the name of a song. history.google.com — see all your past Google searches, also among most important google URLs faxzero.com – send an online fax for free tinychat.com – set up your own private chat room in micro-seconds. privnote.com – create text notes that will self-destruct after being read. domains.google.com – quickly search domain names for your next big idea! downforeveryoneorjustme.com – find if your favourite website is offline or not? gtmetrix.com – the perfect tool for measuring your site performance online. builtwith.com — find the web hosting company, email provider and everything else about a website. urbandictionary.com – find definitions of slangs and informal words. seatguru.com – consult this site before choosing a seat for your next flight. flightstats.com – track flight status at airports worldwide. mymaps.google.com – create custom google maps with scribbles, pins and custom shapes. snopes.com – find if that email offer you received is real or just another scam. typingweb.com – master touch-typing with these practice sessions. todo.microsoft.com — a beautiful to-do app and task manager. minutes.io – quickly capture effective notes during meetings. talltweets.com — turn google slides in animated gif presentations. ifttt.com – create a connection between all your online accounts. namechk.com — search for your desired username across hundreds of social networks and domain names. gist.github.com — create anonymous and secret text notes and much more. flipanim.com — create flipbook animations, includes an onion skin tool to let you see the previous frame as you draw the next one. powtoon.com — create engaging whiteboard videos and presentations with your own voiceovers. Also see videoscribe.co. clyp.it — record your own voice or upload an audio file without creating any account. Also see soundcloud.com. carrd.co — build one-page fully responsive websites that look good on every screen. spark.adobe.com — make stunning video presentations with voice narration and wow everyone. anchor.fm — the easiest way to record a podcast that you can distribute on iTunes without having to pay for hosting. duolingo.com — learn to speak Chinese, french, Spanish or any other language of your choice. webmakerapp.com — an offline playground for building web projects in HTML, CSS and javascript. pixton.com — create your own comic strips with your own characters and move them into any pose. designer.io — a full-featured vector drawing tool that works everywhere. sumopaint.com – an excellent layer-based online image editor. vectr.com — create vector graphics and export them as SVG or png files. twitterbots — create your own twitter bots that can auto-reply, dm, follow people and more. headspace.com — learn the art of meditation and reduce stress, focus more and even sleep better. class-central.com — a directory of free online courses offered by universities worldwide. googleartproject.com — discover museums, famous paintings and art treasure from all around the world. instructables.com — step-by-step guides on how to build anything and everything. flowgram.com — make data-driven graphics, charts and infographics. Also see adioma.com and eas.ly. marvelapp.com — create interactive wireframes and product mockups. slide.ly — make marketing videos and branded stories for Instagram, facebook and youtube trailers. Also see animoto.com and biteable.com. gohighbrow.com — take bite-sized courses on a variety of topics, chapters are delivered by email every morning. htmlmail.pro – send rich-text emails with Gmail mail merge. wirecutter.com — whether you need a vacuum cleaner or an sd card, this is the best product recommendation website on the internet. camelcamelcamel.com — create amazon price watches and get email alerts when the prices drop. mockaroo.com — download mock data to fill the rows in your excel spreadsheet. asciiflow.com — a WYSIWYG editor to draw ASCII diagrams that you can embed in emails and tweets. buffer.com — the easiest way to post and schedule updates on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google+ and facebook. 10minutemail.com — create disposable email addresses for putting inside sign-up forms. whereami — find the postal address of your current location on google maps. sway.com — create and share interactive reports, newsletters, presentations, and storytelling. apify.com — the perfect web scraping tool that lets you extract data from nearly any website. thunkable.com — build your own apps for android and ios by dragging blocks instead of writing code. Also see glitch.com. zerodollarmovies.com — a huge collection of free movies curated from youtube. upwork.com — find freelancers and subject experts to work on any kind of project. duckduckgo.com – a clean alternative to google search that doesn’t track you on the internet. If you know any useful website that is missing from the list? Please let me know via below comments. Source: happenings.lpu.in/top-5-most-useful-websites-of-all-time-2018/ Source: https://www.labnol.org/internet/101-useful-websites/18078/ Read the full article

#bestwebsiteontheinternet #mostusefulwebsites #mostusefulwebsitesinindia #randomusefulwebsites #top10websitesintheworld #usefulwebsitesforstudents #usefulwebsitesontheinternet

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neptunecreek · 6 years ago

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Facing Facebook: Data Portability and Interoperability Are Anti-Monopoly Medicine

Social media has a competition problem, and its name is Facebook. Today, Facebook and its subsidiaries are over ten times more valuable than the next two largest social media companies outside China—Twitter and Snapchat—combined. It has cemented its dominance by buying out potential competitors before they’ve had a chance to grow (like Instagram) and waging wars of attrition against others (like Snapchat) when it can’t. Because of its massive reach across much of the world, the platform can effectively censor public speech, perform psychological experiments, and potentially sway elections on the scale of a nation-state. And if users don’t like the way Facebook wields this power, there is nowhere else as ubiquitous or as well-populated for them to go.

It’s going to take multiple changes to fix the problems, in free expression and elsewhere, caused by Facebook’s dominance. If we’re going to have a real shot at it, one thing that needs to change is giving users meaningful control of their own data.

Facebook’s trove of user data is its most valuable asset, which presents a dilemma. Thanks to network effects, every user who joins a social network makes it more valuable for advertisers and more useful to everyone else. Without some access to the data Facebook has, it’s virtually impossible for upstart platforms to compete with the behemoth now used by nearly a third of the world.

At the same time, the ways Facebook chooses to share its data often go terribly wrong. Users have been rightfully outraged to learn about Facebook’s troublesome use and misuse of their data in the past, including the recent Cambridge Analytica scandal. Since these breaches of trust were often enabled by Facebook’s third-party APIs, some analysts have come to the conclusion that there’s an unavoidable trade-off between interoperability and privacy.

There’s some truth to that, but it’s too simplistic. And it leads to appointing Facebook keeper and protector of the world’s data.

We believe there’s another way to look at it.

Facebook should let users take back control of their own data. This doesn’t raise the same privacy problems as letting third parties suck up everything about all of us. If done with care, it can be accomplished without opening the door to shady actors like Cambridge Analytica. In addition, Facebook has to start thinking differently about how it interacts with third-party developers. Instead of granting them access to data but forcing them to work within its walled garden, Facebook should serve as a hub, allowing developers to create new experiences for users that build off of the core service it offers and hosts. Ultimately, Facebook does not have to be any less diligent about protecting users from malicious actors. It just has to stop “protecting” them from legitimate competitors.

Facebook already recognizes that it is under pressure to improve its data portability story. Last week it announced that, along with Twitter, it was joining Microsoft and Google’s data portability initiative, the Data Transfer Project. While we applaud that move on behalf of all of these tech companies, our concern is that this, and similar, projects will be used to fend off regulation without substantially changing the status quo. The Data Transfer Project is a set of tools and standards to make it technologically easier to move data from one place to another. However, without substantive changes to the Facebook’s policies and processes, this project alone won’t give us meaningful portability away from the tech giants or tools that empower end-users themselves.

We think Facebook should:

Give users a tool for real data portability. That includes a way to export the rich contact list that Facebook hosts and the tracking data Facebook collects without meaningful consent.

Open up its platform policy to enable competitors, cooperators, and follow-on innovators. Allow developers to use Facebook’s APIs for software that modifies or competes with the core Facebook experience.

Interoperate with next generation of social networks via open standards. Adapt Facebook’s APIs to use the W3C’s social web protocols where appropriate, and allow open, federated services like Mastodon to work with Facebook as partners.

Let’s go into more detail on each of these.

Make data truly portable

Data portability allows a user to take their data and move it to a different platform. Many tech companies have long supported data portability as a core value.

Facebook, however, has a history of taking advantage of the data portability features offered by other companies as a means to an end: growing its own network. In its early years, for example, Facebook benefited immensely from Google's portability efforts. Facebook encouraged users to download their contacts lists from Gmail, then upload them to Facebook, in order to build out its social network.

At the same time, Facebook has always dragged its feet when it comes to portability from its own platform. In its early years, Facebook displayed users’ email addresses on their profile pages, not as text, but as images, making it frustratingly difficult to download lists of friends’ contact information, or even to copy and paste a single address into an email client. Until recently, Facebook’s data export tool provided users with an inscrutable, unparseable mess of text and HTML.

Europe’s General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR), which took effect May 25, 2018, declares data portability a basic right for all European citizens. In accordance with GDPR, Facebook’s newest export tool allows users everywhere to download their data in the machine-readable JSON format. But Facebook’s export tool only includes a small subset of the data the company actually has about its users, and it falls short of empowering users to pick up their data and take their business elsewhere.

Facebook’s promise to work with the Data Transport Project is encouraging, but if they don’t use it as an opportunity to address wider issues with their current tools, it won’t mean substantial change for users.

Free the friends list

Facebook’s newest data-export tool exports friends lists—the building blocks of the social network, and arguably the data most critical to its competitive advantage—in the form of plain-text names without unique identifiers. This makes it impossible for a user to take their list of friends to a competing service. Any social network trying to parse Facebook’s list won’t be able to tell whether “John Smith” refers to John Smith in Haight-Ashbury, John Smith in Sri Lanka, or John Smith the 17th-century British explorer.

Facebook has claimed it doesn’t want to let users export their friends’ email addresses for privacy reasons, but remember that Facebook was more than happy to take advantage of Gmail’s tool to grow its own network. Facebook could build a better export tool without raising tough privacy questions. Associating names with unique identifiers, like “John Smith, user number 100372813,” would allow competing services to disambiguate common names.

It’s not just competing social media companies that would benefit. Facebook friends lists are essentially rich “contact lists” that give its other products, especially WhatsApp and Messenger, a distinct competitive advantage. Facebook was built on data ported from the incumbent services of its time. Now, it’s time to return the favor.

Let users see how they’re being tracked

Another area where Facebook’s tool is seriously lacking is in the advertisement data it exports. The company tracks whenever you use one of the hundreds of thousands of websites and apps that use Facebook technology, and it uses those data to target ads. You can see a list of plain-text “topics” that Facebook believes you’re interested in, but there is no record of the browsing data the company used to determine those interests.

With these trackers, Facebook is engaged in massive, nonconsensual surveillance of its users’ habits both on the web and on their phones. You can’t opt out of collection or delete these data—the best you can do is to stop it with a tracker blocker like Privacy Badger. We think Facebook should stop this entirely, but the least it can do is let you see what it knows. If you could download Facebook’s ad-targeting database about you, other advertisers might pay handsomely for it, giving you a way to share in the profits from Facebook’s surveillance. You could construct a detailed record of where you’ve been, what sites you’ve visited, and what advertisers have paid Facebook for your eyeballs.

Recently, Facebook has hinted at giving users the ability to delete historical tracking data about them. This would be a great step forward, but ultimately, users deserve full control of when and how they are tracked. That includes first-class access to the detailed data Facebook has.

Interoperate, Federate, Innovate

Interoperability is the extent to which one platform’s infrastructure can work with others. In software parlance, interoperability is usually achieved through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)—interfaces that allow other developers to interact with an existing software service. For example, Facebook’s APIs allow third-party apps to verify a user’s identity, access their data, and even post on their behalf with that user’s permission.

When big companies build interoperable platforms, it’s often a boon to everyone. “Follow-on innovators” can leverage the tools that a platform has pioneered to make better experiences for the platform’s users, to offer novel tools that build on the platform’s strengths, and to allow users to interact with multiple major services at the same time. For example, PadMapper started by organizing data about rental housing pulled from Craigslist posts and presenting it in a useful way; Trillian allowed users to use multiple IM services through the same client and added features like encryption on top of AIM, Skype, and email. On a larger scale, digital interoperability enables decentralized, federated services like email, modern telephony networks, and the World Wide Web. Facebook’s lack of true interoperability, especially for enhancing or competing services, is one of the ways it has cemented its position.

Use app review to protect users, not stifle innovation

The Cambridge Analytica scandal was a result of Facebook offering extremely powerful APIs to third-party apps. Facebook made it too easy for apps to request data about users and all of their friends, and too easy for users to agree to sharing data without understanding the implications.

In response to the scandal, Facebook has tightened control over their interoperable tools across the board and removed some of the more problematic APIs altogether. However, the scandal has also given the company an excuse to make life more difficult for would-be innovators. We must detangle the two if we’re going to reduce Facebook’s power.

Currently, the “platform policy” that Facebook requires developers to agree to in order to use its APIs is designed to protect Facebook’s interests as much as, if not more than, its users’. For example, Section 4.2 prevents offering “experiences that change the way Facebook looks and functions.” This explicitly prevents app developers from trying to improve the UI, or even allowing users to customize it for themselves. Other clauses, like “respect the limits we’ve placed on Facebook functionality,” similarly reflect Facebook’s desire to maintain tight control over the ways its users interact with their data in the platform.

Furthermore, Section 4.1 states, “Don’t replicate core functionality that Facebook already provides.” This gives the company grounds to reject any competitive social network that would federate its service with Facebook.

App review is an important practice, and Facebook should continue working to prevent malicious developers from leveraging its platform to harm users. However, the company should allow others to build on and differ from what it has created in meaningful ways. A platform as vast and powerful as Facebook should be a jumping-off point for innovators, not a means for the company to impose a single experience on everyone in its network.

Interface with the next generation of federated social networks

Successful interoperability is almost always powered by open standards. Email is a good example. Thanks to widely-adopted protocols like SMTP and IMAP, you can sign up for an account on FastMail and send messages to your friends who use Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, and Microsoft seamlessly. Email is a federated service: it comprises many decentralized, independent service providers that communicate with a set of common, open standards. As a result, users get to choose both the company they trust to host their messages and the software they use to access them.

Facebook should adapt their APIs to work with the World Wide Web Consortium’s recently-developed Social Web Protocols, like ActivityStreams and ActivityPub. This would give developers a stable, flexible interface to Facebook’s platform and make it possible for Facebook to interoperate with the next generation of federated services like Mastodon. In the future, Facebook could become just one of a vast network of independent social servers. Users could choose to host their data on the service with the features and policies that they preferred and still be able to interact with their friends on Facebook and elsewhere.

It’s Not Just Facebook

There was a time when data portability was seen as a positive goal for emerging tech companies: Mark Zuckerberg said recently — with a tone of regret — that it was something Facebook engineers considered, many years ago:

I do think early on on the platform we had this very idealistic vision around how data portability would allow all these different new experiences, and I think the feedback that we’ve gotten from our community and from the world is that privacy and having the data locked down is more important to people than maybe making it easier to bring more data and have different kinds of experiences.

We disagree that’s how the feedback Facebook is receiving from users and lawmakers should be interpreted. What users want is both security and real control over their experience — and they don’t want to cede how to do that exclusively to what Mark Zuckerberg decides is appropriate.

But, to be clear, a choice between having Facebook decide what your needs are, or Google or Twitter or Microsoft, can’t be enough either. When we’re talking about nearly 8 billion people, it’s inconceivable that a handful of (largely American) companies will be able to deliver that balance for everybody.

With initiatives like the Data Transfer Project, we are concerned that these companies are already acting as though the most important portability is between their own shared conception of what an Internet service is. The Data Transfer Project will enable users to move data directly between two services, but it remains to be seen what data Facebook lets you transfer and where it lets those data go. We know there’s more to the Internet than this decade’s version of a successful, venture-capital funded, West Coast company. All of these companies need to hand back over control of people’s data, so we can decide what we want to do with it.

How We Get There

Facebook has the power to make all of these changes on its own. Doing so would mean a more socially responsible company, a better experience for its users, and a more level playing field for its competition. If the company isn’t willing to help, governments may have to step in. Congress can pass laws that mandate real data portability, as the GDPR already does in Europe. Such laws should require that data like a user’s friends list be accessible to that user in a useful format. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has authority to impose “behavioral remedies” on companies that illegally maintain market power. Fixes for data portability and interoperability could be part of an antitrust remedy or negotiated settlement with the FTC.

And if some politicians are reticent to regulate the tech industry, there’s still work that could be done to empower users to fix the problem themselves — by fixing laws that prevent users from taking their data back. Facebook and the other tech giants fence off their data, even from end-users, through their narrow terms of service that seek to limit what users — or their tools — can do on a site or service. Users shouldn’t have to fear losing access to their account just because they have decided to download or scrape their own data from it. And no one in the Internet ecology should fear prosecution from statutes like the CFAA for empowering users to move, delete or examine the data that big tech has on them.

None of these solutions are not a panacea. Facebook wields other kinds of market power which smaller companies may not be able to overcome, and which we may need to address in other ways. But data portability and interoperability could help transform Facebook from an obstacle to a catalyst for innovation. If it were more feasible for users to take their data and move elsewhere, Facebook would need to compete on the strength of its product rather than on the difficulty of starting over. And if the platform were more interoperable, smaller companies could work with the infrastructure Facebook has already created to build innovative new experiences and open up new markets. Users are trapped in a stagnant, sick system. Freeing their data and giving them control are the first steps towards a cure.

This summer, EFF is looking at how corporate concentration is harming the Internet and how to fix it. Interoperability and data portability are just one set of tools, and Facebook is just one company. Stay tuned for more discussion about what’s wrong, who’s responsible, and the right and wrong ways to address it.

Related Cases:

Facebook v. Power Ventures

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gabrielcollignon · 7 years ago

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A flaw-by-flaw guide to Facebook’s new GDPR privacy changes

Facebook is about to start pushing European users to speed through giving consent for its new GDPR privacy law compliance changes. It will ask people to review how Facebook applies data from web to target them with ads, and surface the sensitive profile info they share. Facebook will also allow European and Canadian users to turn on facial recognition after six years of the feature being blocked there. But with a design that encourages rapidly hitting the “Agree” button, a lack of granular controls, a laughably cheatable parental consent request for teens, and an aesthetic overhaul of Download Your Information that doesn’t make it any easier to switch social networks, Facebook shows it’s still hungry for your data.

The new privacy change and terms of service consent flow will appear starting this week to European users, though they’ll be able to dismiss it for now, though the May 25th GDPR compliance deadline Facebook vowed to uphold in Europe is looming. Meanwhile, Facebook says it will roll out the changes and consent flow globally over the coming weeks and months with some slight regional differences. And finally, all teens worldwide that share sensitive info will have to go through the weak new parental consent flow.

Facebook brought a group of reporters to the new Building 23 at its Menlo Park headquarters to preview the changes today. But feedback was heavily critical as journalists grilled Facebook’s deputy chief privacy officer Rob Sherman. Questions centered around how Facebook makes accepting the updates much easier than reviewing or changing them, but Sherman stuck to talking points about how important it was to give users choice and information.

“Trust is really important and it’s clear that we have a lot of work to do to regain the trust of people on our service” he said, giving us deja vu about Mark Zuckerberg’s testimonies before congress. “We know that people won’t be comfortable using facebook if they don’t feel that their information is protected.”

Trouble At Each Step Of Facebook’s Privacy Consent Flow

There are a ton of small changes so we’ll lay out each with our criticisms.

Facebook’s consent flow starts well enough with the screen above offering a solid overview of why it’s making changes for GDPR and what you’ll be reviewing. But with just an ‘X’ up top to back out, it’s already training users to speed through by hitting that big blue button at the bottom.

—

Sensitive Info

First up is control of your sensitive profile information, specifically your sexual preference, religious views, and political views. As you’ll see at each step, you can hit the pretty blue “Accept And Continue” button regardless of whether you’ve scrolled through the information. If you hit the ugly grey “Manage Settings” button, you have to go through an interstitial where Facebook makes it’s argument trying to deter you from removing the info before letting you make and save your choice. It feels obviously designed to get users to breeze through it by offering no resistance to continue, but friction if you want to make changes.

Facebook doesn’t let advertisers target you based on this sensitive info, which is good. The only exception is that in the US, political views alongside political Pages and Events you interact with impact your overarching personality categories that can be targeted with ads. You can opt out of being targeted by those too. But your only option here is either to remove any info you’ve shared in these categories so friends can’t see it, or allow Facebook to use it to personalize the site. There’s no option to keep this stuff on your profile but not let Facebook use it.

—

Facial Recognition

Facebook is bringing facial recognition back to Europe and Canada. The Irish Data Protection commissioner who oversees the EU banned it there in 2012. Users in these countries will get a chance to turn it on, which is the default if they speed through. It’s a useful feature that can make sure people know about the photos of them floating around. But here the lack of granularity is concerning. Users might want to see warnings about possible impersonators using their face in their profile pics, but not be suggested as someone to tag in their friends’ photos. Unfortunately, it’s all or nothing. While Facebook is right to make it simple to turn on or off completely, granular controls that unfold for those that want them would be much more empowering.

[Update: This article has been update to reflect that Facebook indeed can offer facial recognition in Europe and Canada.]

—

Data Collection Across The Web

A major concern that’s arisen in the wake of Zuckerberg’s testimonies is how Facebook uses data collected about you from around the web to target users with ads and optimize its service. While Sherman echoed Zuckerberg in saying that users tell the company they prefer relevant ads, and that this data can help thwart hackers and scrapers, many users are unsettled by the offsite collection practices. Here, Facebook lets you block it from targeting you with ads based on data about your browsing behavior on sites that show its Like and share buttons, conversion Pixel, or Audience Network ads. The issue is that there’s no way to stop Facebook from using that data from personalizing your News Feed or optimizing other parts of its service.

—

New Terms Of Service

Facebook recently rewrote its Terms Of Service and Data Use Policy to be more explicit and easy to read. It didn’t make any significant changes other than noting the policy now applies to its subsidiaries like Instagram and Messenger. [Correction: But WhatsApp and Oculus have their own data policies.] That’s all clearly explained here, which is nice.

But the fact that the button to reject the new Terms Of Service isn’t even a button, it’s a tiny ‘see your options’ hyperlink shows how badly Facebook wants to avoid you closing your account. When Facebook’s product designer for the GDPR flow was asked if she thought this hyperlink was the best way to present the alternative to the big ‘I Accept’ button, she disingenuously said yes, eliciting scoffs from the room of reporters. It seems obvious that Facebook is trying to minimize the visibility of the path to account deletion rather than making it an obvious course of action if you don’t agree to its terms.

I requested Facebook actually show us what was on the other side of that tiny ‘see my options’ link and this is what we got. First, Facebook doesn’t mention its temporary deactivation option, just the scary permanent delete option. Facebook recommends downloading your data before deleting your account, which you should. But the fact that you’ll have to wait (often a few hours) before you can download your data could push users to delay deletion and perhaps never resume. And only if you keep scrolling do you get to another tiny “I’m ready to delete my account” hyperlink instead of a real button.

—

Parental Consent

GDPR also implements new regulation about how teens are treated, specifically users between the ages of 13 (the minimum age required to sign up for Facebook) and 15. If users in this age range have shared their religious views, political views, or sexual preference, Facebook requires them to either remove it or get parental consent to keep it. They also need permission to be targeted with ads based on data from Facebook’s partners. Without that permission, they’ll see a less personalized version of Facebook. But the system for attaining and verifying that parental consent is a joke.

Users merely select one of their Facebook friends or enter an email address, and that person is asked to give consent for their ‘child’ to share sensitive info. But Facebook blindly trusts that they’ve actually selected their parent or guardian, even though it has a feature for users to designate who their family is, and the kid could put anyone in the email field, including an alternate address they control. Sherman says Facebook is “not seeking to collect additional information” to verify parental consent, so it seems Facebook is happy to let teens easily bypass the checkup.

—

Privacy Shortcuts

To keep all users abreast of their privacy settings, Facebook has redesigned its Privacy Shortcuts in a colorful format that sticks out from the rest of the site. No complaints here.

—

Download Your Information

Facebook has completely redesigned its Download Your Information tool after keeping it basically the same for the past 8 years. You can now view your content and data in different categories without downloading it, which alongside the new privacy shortcuts is perhaps the only unequivocally positive and unproblematic change amidst today’s announcements.

And Facebook now lets you select certain categories of data, date ranges, JSON or HTML format, and image quality to download. That could make it quicker and easier if you just need a copy of a certain type of content but don’t need to export all your photos and videos for example. Thankfully, Facebook says you’ll now be able to download your media in a higher resolution than the old tool allowed.

But the big problem here was the subject of my feature piece this week about Facebook’s lack of data portability. The Download Your Information tool is supposed to let you take your data and go to a different social network. But it only exports your social graph aka your friends as a text list of names. There are no links, usernames, or other unique identifiers unless friends opt into let you export their email or phone number (only 4% of my friends do), so good luck finding the right John Smith on another app. The new version of Download Your Information exports the same old list of names, rather than offering any interoperable format that would let you find your friends elsewhere.

A Higher Standard

Overall, it seems like Facebook is complying with the letter of GDPR law, but with questionable spirit. Sure, privacy is boring to a lot of people. Too little info and they feel confused and scared. Too many choices and screens and they feel overwhelmed and annoyed. Facebook struck the right balance in some places here. But the subtly pushy designs seem intended to steer people away from changing their defaults in ways that could hamper Facebook’s mission and business.

Making the choices equal in visible weight, rather than burying the ways to make changes in grayed-out buttons and tiny links, would have been more fair. And it would have shown that Facebook has faith in the value it provides, such that users would stick around and leave features enabled if they truly wanted to.

When questioned about this, Sherman pointed the finger at other tech companies, saying he thought Facebook was more upfront with users. Asked to clarify if he thought Facebook’s approach was “better”, he said “I think that’s right”. But Facebook isn’t being judged by the industry standard because it’s not a standard company. It’s built its purpose and its business on top of our private data, and touted itself as a boon to the world. But when asked to clear a higher bar for privacy, Facebook delved into design tricks to keep from losing our data.

#Tech

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sheminecrafts · 7 years ago

Text

A flaw-by-flaw guide to Facebook’s new GDPR privacy changes

Facebook is about to start pushing European users to speed through giving consent for its new GDPR privacy law compliance changes. They ask users review how Facebook uses data around the web to target you with ads, sensitive profile info they share, and facial recognition But with a design the encourages rapidly hitting the “Agree” button, a lack of granular controls, a laughably cheatable parental consent request for teens, and an aesthetic overhaul of Download Your Information that doesn’t make it any easier to switch social networks, Facebook shows it’s still hungry for your data.

The new privacy change and terms of service consent flow will appear starting this week to European users, though they’ll be able to dismiss it for now, at least until the May 25th GDPR compliance deadline Facebook vowed to uphold in Europe. Meanwhile, Facebook says it will roll out the changes and consent flow globally over the coming weeks and months, though with some slight regional differences. And finally, all teens worldwide that share sensitive info will have to go through the weak new parental consent flow.

Facebook brought a group of reporters to the new Building 23 at its Menlo Park headquarters to preview the changes. But feedback was heavily critical as journalists grilled Facebook’s deput chief privacy officer Rob Sherman. Questions centered around how Facebook makes accepting the updates much easier than review or changing them, but Sherman stuck to talking points about how important it was to give users choice and information.

“Trust is really important and it’s clear that we have a lot of work to do to regain the trust of people on our service” he said, giving us deja vu about Mark Zuckerberg’s testimonies before congress. “We know that people won’t becomfortable using facebook if they don’t feel that their information is protected.”

Trouble At Each Step Of Facebook’s Privacy Consent Flow

There are a ton of small changes so we’ll lay out each with our criticisms.

—

Sensitive Info

First up is control of your sensitive profile information, specifically your sexual preference, religious views, and political views. As you’ll see at each step, you can either hit the pretty blue “Accept And Continue” button regardless of whether you’ve scrolled through the information. But if you hit the ugly grey “Manage Settings” button, you have to go through an interstitial where Facebook makes it’s argument trying to deter you from moving the info before letting you make and save your choice. It feels obviously designed to get users to breeze through it by offering no resistance to continue, but friction if you want to make changes.

Facebook doesn’t let advertisers target you based on this sensitive info, which is good. The only exception is that in the US, political views alongside political Pages and Events you interact with inform your overarching personality categories that can be targeted with ads. But your only option here is either to remove any info you’ve shared in these categories so friends can’t see it, or allow Facebook to use it to personalize the site. There’s no option to keep this stuff on your profile but not let Facebook use it.

—

Facial Recognition

The Face Recognition step won’t actually give users in the European Union a choice, as the government has banned the feature. But everyone else will get to choose whether to leave their existing setting, which defaults to on, or turn off the feature. Here the lack of granularity is concerning. Users might want to see warnings about possible impersonators using their face in their profile pics, but not be suggested as someone to tag in their friends’ photos. Unfortunately, it’s all or nothing. While Facebook is right to make it simple to turn on or off completely, granular controls that unfold for those that want them would be much more empowering.

—

Data Collection Across The Web

A major concern that’s arisen in the wake of Zuckerberg’s testimonies is how Facebook uses data collected about you from around the web to target users with ads and optimize its service. While Facebook deputer chief privacy officer Rob Sherman echoed Zuckerberg in saying that users tell the company they prefer relevant ads, and that this data can help thwart hackers and scrapers, many users are unsettled by the offsite collection practices. Here, Facebook lets you block it from targeting you wih ads based on data about your browsing behavior on sites that show its Like and share buttons, conversion Pixel, or Audience Network ads. Here the issue is that there’s no way to stop Facebook from using that data from personalizing your News Feed or optimizing other parts of its service.

—

New Terms Of Service

Facebook recently rewrote its Terms Of Service and Data Use Policy to be more explicit and easy to read. It didn’t make any significant changes other than noting the policy now applies to its subsidiaries like Instagram, WhatsApp, and Oculus. That’s all clearly explained here, which is nice. But the fact that the button to reject the new Terms Of Service isn’t even a button, it’s a tiny ‘see your options’ hyperlink shows how badly Facebook wants to avoid you closing your account. When Facebook’s product designer for the GDPR flow was asked if she thought this hyperlink was the best way to present the alternative to the big ‘I Accept’ button, she disingenuously said yes, eliciting scoffs from the room of reporters. It seems obvious that Facebook is trying to minimize the visibility of the path to account deletion rather than making it an obvious course of action if you don’t agree to its terms.

I requested Facebook actually show us what was on the other side of the that tine ‘see my options’ link and this is what we got. First, Facebook doesn’t mention its temporary deactivation option, just the scary permanent delete option. Facebook recommends downloading your data before deleting your account, which you should. But the fact that you’ll have to wait (often a few hours) before you can download your data could push users to delay deletion and perhaps never resume. And only if you keep scrolling do you get to another tiny “I’m ready to delete my account” hyperlink instead of a real button.

—

Parental Consent

GDPR also implements new regulation about how teens are treated, specifically users between the ages of 13 (the minimum age required to sign up for Facebook) and 15. If users in this age range have shared their religious views, political views, or sexual preference, Facebook requires them to either remove it or get parental consent to keep it. But the system for attaining and verifying that parental consent is a joke.

—

Privacy Shortcuts

To keep all users abreast of their privacy settings, Facebook has redesigned its Privacy Shortcuts in a colorful format that sticks out from the rest of the site. No complaints here.

—

Download Your Information

And Facebook now lets you select certain categories of data, date ranges, JSON or HTML format, and image quality to download. That could make it quicker and easier if you just need a copy of a certain type of content but don’t need to export all your photos and videos for example. Thankfully, Facebook says you’ll be able to now export your media in a higher resolution than the old tool allowed.

But the big problem here was the subject of my feature piece about Facebook’s lack of data portability. The Download Your Information tool is supposed to let you take your data and go to a different social network. But it only exports your social graph aka your friends as a text list of names. There are no links, usernames, or other unique identifiers unless friends opt into let you export their email or phone number, so good luck finding the right John Smith on another app. The new version of Download Your Information works exactly the same, rather than offering any interoperable format that would let you find your friends elsewhere.

A Higher Standard

Overall, it seems like Facebook is complying with the letter of GDPR law, but with questionable spirit. Sure, privacy is boring to a lot of people. Too little info and they feel confused and scared. Too many choices and screens and they feel overwhelmed and annoyed. Facebook struck the right balance in some places here. But the subtly pushy designs seem intended to push people away from changing their defaults in ways that could hamper Facebook’s mission and business.

Making the choices even in visible weight, rather than burying the ways to make changes in grayed-out buttons and tiny links, would have been more fair. And it would have shown that Facebook has faith in the value it provides, such that users would stick around and leave features enabled if they truly wanted to.

from iraidajzsmmwtv https://ift.tt/2qG6DLY via IFTTT

#IFTTT #iraidajzsmmwtv

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universeinform-blog · 8 years ago

Text

Downloading the latest WhatsApp update with no internet connection on your phone

New Post has been published on https://universeinform.com/2017/03/18/downloading-the-latest-whatsapp-update-with-no-internet-connection-on-your-phone/

Downloading the latest WhatsApp update with no internet connection on your phone

One of the ways in which WhatsApp manages to stay on top as the main software is through presenting consistent updates that now not handiest convey new interesting functions to the revel in, however additionally take a look and connect troubles left at the back off through preceding iterations. But, whilst a brand new update is launched, customers need to replace the app so that each one the present day changes will take the impact on their telephones as nicely.

This in all fairness simple for the majority: They just activate their WiFi, navigate to the application’s web page on both the Play Keep or App Store, and press the huge button that says “update” on it. Of direction, there’s a “too true to be actual” component to it as nicely. One of the essential factors of this state of affairs is that the users have a web connection. If for a few motive there’s no to be had the connection to the internet to your cell phone, you can’t use it to download the today’s WhatsApp update. Is there a way around this? Ou can download WhatsApp without a web connection for your phone, in a different style. If you have the internet on your computer, you will still be able to replace your model of WhatsApp. The way you do this is by using manually copying the APK document for WhatsApp on your smartphone.

To start off, go to a relied on APK distributor. A website this is recognized for being valid and gained put you at the risk of getting your handset inflamed with viruses or malware. download the brand new APK record for WhatsApp, and use a USB cable to transfer it for your telephone. Before you proceed, visit your settings and allow the Unknown Sources option. This can permit your phone to put in the application that isn’t from the respectable app Store. Now simply head over to the APK document on your telephone and faucet it to begin the setup procedure. After some seconds, your version of WhatsApp should be up to date. you could test this from the app’s settings.

A way to Use WhatsApp As an Emerging Advertising Device and for Social Media Marketing

A way to use WhatsApp as a Rising Advertising Tool.

WhatsApp has been getting extra interest on the account that Facebook bought this messaging carrier application. The carrier has revamped the manner phones had been utilized for commercial. Taking advantage of WhatsApp, communications are becoming more centered and special among groups and clients.

Using custom designed messages, WhatsApp is an extraordinary way of advertising for manufacturers to maximize the benefits of their Advertising efforts.

WhatsApp for interaction:

WhatsApp may be adopted as a Device to without delay talk with the humans whom. You can take gain of WhatsApp to ship images, video and text messages of new products on your present day clients.

The interplay desires to be one to one, as the target market would not want to be part of a WhatsApp organization. One-to-one verbal exchange makes them feel special and builds the belief of the patron for your brand.

Create mutual communities of like-minded people:

Take the initiative and create WhatsApp companies of awesome audiences. You may create corporations on the idea in their geographical region, interest, and demographics. You can additionally limit the room for your WhatsApp companies together with what number of human beings will be in a single organization. After doing the whole manner, start sending messages to the organization.

WhatsApp to arrange humans:

WhatsApp is most preferred with the aid of customers to speak with humans they recognize. Take benefit of this reality and use WhatsApp to gather humans for a selected purpose or an event. Invite people to sign up for the occasion by means of sending an invite on WhatsApp and request them to the percentage it among their WhatsApp group to increase your audience. The more people share the occasion, the greater your audience will develop.

Show a product as the profile picture:

To put it up for sale your product through WhatsApp, You could ship an information alert but You could make it an awful lot better by means of uploading the product photograph as the profile photo and updating the frame so it offers some facts about the product. Setting a website URL in the frame also can works exceptional to sell your brand.

Revamp the WhatsApp content material.

Before sharing a photo or a video record via WhatsApp, you want to make certain that the size of a report is small so that extra users are capable of downloading the document. Due to the fact human beings are much more likely to watch a brief video on WhatsApp as opposed to looking a prolonged video.

WhatsApp’s impact on social media Marketing

WhatsApp is definitely a vital part of your online social advertising. It is an immediately messaging utility to communicate with your target market. Social entrepreneurs usually look for a compelling technique to get the eye of their current customers as well as locate new clients.

This App permits actual-time two-way communication with the audience who matters the most to you and your commercial enterprise. The main objective of WhatsApp Advertising is to engage your potential target audience. WhatsApp is a multi-purpose, user pleasant utility which lets you reap your business goals.

The Influences of Net Tv and Radio Among Young Human beings in Nigeria

There may be a developing verbal exchange mix with the advent of the Net in Nigeria through on-line Tv and radio. An increasing number of Younger People are starting to comply with Tv and radio via the Internet because of its interactive nature.

News and way of life gist are observed greater at the Internet via young adults than in fundamental circulate media, notwithstanding the truth that the nation money owed of numerous Tv and FM radio stations. The social media has made it simpler for People to watch movies via Fb, and YouTube. numerous tens of millions of Humans around the arena had been reached thru on-line Television and radio systems.

The fact is that Younger People are drawn to on-line Television and radio because they’re a computer-savvy generation. greater so because social interactions have moved to space. The Internet gives them the possibility to connect to like minds with little or no regulations.

Apparently, schedule putting is being tailored through Internet conversation, from tune to leisure. Live and real-time updates have made the Internet a place to be for many artists, musicians, and media analysts. An internet Television and radio presenter, Mr. Barry Nwibira of AKPO’s online Tv/Radio said that his station enjoys a big followership from Younger People, that the destiny is here on the Net. He said that the program he currently anchors ‘Campus Topics’ is trending most of the adolescent’s population. The reaction became the identical for online Tv Nijiezie and Kemdrex Tv.

Most of the conventional Tv and FM radio stations are starting to discover the Internet to reach out to their fans, so as now not to be left at the back of in an ever-changing global.

However, the high value of statistics and Net provider disruption remains an assignment to the whole usage of the Net as a medium of Television and radio communication in Nigeria.

It is hoped that with the enchantment of extra investment within the statistics and verbal exchange region in Nigeria, the web Tv and radio might witness a big change.

The Significance Of Cellular Phones In Cutting-edge Society

Cellular Phones have grown to be a need for lots humans in the course of the sector. The capacity to maintain in touch with family, commercial enterprise friends, and get right of entry to email are just a few of the reasons for the growing Significance of Mobile Phones. Cutting-edge technically superior Cell Phones are capable of no longer only receiving and setting telephone calls, but storing statistics, taking images, and may even be used as walkie talkies, to name only some of the available alternatives.

When Cell Phones have been first added to the public, they were cumbersome, high-priced, and some even required a base unit that had to be transported together with the cellphone. Correct reception becomes a primary hassle and in preferred, early Cellular Phones should best be utilized in certain locations were the sign become especially strong. As Mobile telephone era superior, the difficult in the usage of them have become much less of a problem. Nowadays, Cellular phone reception has stepped forward substantially because of using satellites and wireless offerings. As Cell Telephones progressed and became simple to use, the Significance of Cell Telephones multiplied as a consequence.

Cellular Phones are the correct way to live linked with others and offer the person with an experience of protection. In the occasion of emergency, having a Cellular smartphone can permit help to reach you quickly and will probably save lives. However, the Significance of Cell Telephones is going way past personal protection. Contemporary Mobile Phones are able to net access, sending and receiving photographs and documents, and a few Cell Phones are geared up with GPS generation, allowing for use in most locations around the arena and allowing the Cellular cell phone to be observed or the person positioned Inside the occasion of loss or emergency.

Cell cellphone reception has emerged as dependable and of high first-class because of advances in wi-fi generation. wi-fi service providers provide super packages and promotions for Cellular smartphone customers. Locating a dependable carrier issuer is no longer a trouble for Cell cellphone customers. The growth of the wi-fi provider company industry offers Cell phone customers a desire and the extended competition has prompted a drop in charges of wi-fi Cell phone carrier. The Significance of Cellular Phones goes manner beyond the capacity to make or acquire phone calls. Cellular phone customers can instantly ship data to the home or office, take a look at for critical electronic mail, use their Cell phone as a PDA or calendar, and keep photos which may be effortlessly transferred to a Computer or laptop computer.

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ds4design · 8 years ago

Text

10 Awesome Mac Features You Can Get on Your Windows PC

I’ve been a Mac user for a long time — the last version of Windows I owned was XP. But I recently built up a gaming PC How To Build Your Own PC How To Build Your Own PC It's very gratifying to build your own PC; as well as intimidating. But the process itself is actually quite simple. We'll walk you through everything you need to know. Read More , and the easy choice for the operating system (OS) was Windows 10. Coming back to Microsoft’s OS after many years of Mac-only existence was a little weird, and I found that I missed some surprising little things from macOS.

Here are 10 features that I missed, and, where I could, how I got them back.

1. En- and Em-Dash

For me this is a big one. As a writer and editor, I use both dashes on a regular basis. And just being able to hit Option + – or Option + Shift + – to get them was extremely convenient. Unfortunately, Windows has no native way of inserting these dashes. If you don’t use them very often, you can copy and paste them from somewhere. Or you can rely on your software to insert them for you, but most software isn’t very good at this.

The best way to get around this problem is to use AutoHotKey (AHK). With this app, you can bind specific keystrokes to specific actions. In this case, I used the following code:

!-::– return +!-::— return

Now, when I press Alt + –, I get an en-dash, and when I press Alt + Shift + –, I get an em-dash. On a related note, AutoHotKey is insanely useful — you should definitely be using it to power up your computer 10+ Cool AutoHotkey Scripts & How to Make Your Own 10+ Cool AutoHotkey Scripts & How to Make Your Own AutoHotkey is an easy way to add shortcuts to your computer. You can download ready-to-use scripts or write your own. We show you to become more productive with automated hotkey tasks. Read More .

2. Enter to Rename

I rename files a lot. When I’m working on an article, it’s not a stretch to guess that I could rename up to 15 different files over a short period of time. And so just being able to hit Enter on my Mac to rename a file was great. My finger is already near the key and it’s easy to hit it. In Windows, pressing Enter opens the file. Not helpful.

The best solution? Learn the Windows keyboard shortcuts Windows Shortcuts 101 - The Ultimate Keyboard Shortcut Guide Windows Shortcuts 101 - The Ultimate Keyboard Shortcut Guide With so many shortcuts built into Windows and its software, it might seem impossible to learn them all. Here's the ultimate guide to the most useful keyboard shortcuts. Read More . Once you’ve selected a file, hit F2 to rename it. It’s also possible to use AHK to make any press of Enter while you’re in Windows Explorer to trigger an F2 press, but this seems like more hassle than it’s worth.

3. Command Key Placement

I realize that this is likely just being used to where they keys are. But I grew to really like the placement of the Command key. I could hit it with my thumb, and easily reach to A, L, C, V, T, and the other keys I often used it with. These shortcuts are accessed with the Control key on a PC, which I hit with my last finger instead of my thumb.

Again, it’s probably just because I’m used to the Mac keyboard layout. But it feels really weird, and like it isn’t quite as ergonomic. Possibly because my smallest finger is weaker than my thumb. AutoHotKey comes to the rescue again, enabling me to change the Control and Alt keys on my PC keyboard. I can even change the keycaps on my keyboard so I remember.

Here’s the script:

LCtrl::LAlt return LAlt::LCtrl return

This messes with the traditional Alt + Tab window switcher in Windows, but fixing it in AHK is rather complicated.

4. Fast File Exploration

In Finder, every time you open a folder, the contents are displayed immediately. On a PC, it can take a few seconds. I found this most notable when opening folders to upload images to WordPress. On my Mac, it would take a couple seconds. On the PC, it was closer to 10–15 seconds total. It’s not much, but it was notable.

Turns out Windows optimizes folders for specific types of files, and that optimization can lead to a slow-down when you’re opening them. To get rid of this, right-click on any file, then go to Properties > Customize. Choose General Items instead of whatever option is currently selected, and the load speed will improve.

5. Screenshot Shortcuts

My job requires that I take a lot of screenshots, so being able to hit Command + Shift + 4 or Command + Shift + 5 was a huge help. No need to open a program — just hit the screenshot shortcut How To Take Screenshots On Your Mac: Tips & Tools How To Take Screenshots On Your Mac: Tips & Tools There are many ways to take screenshots with OS X, using both built-in and third-party tools — each with its advantages and disadvantages. Here's everything you need to know. Read More , select what I want, and the file gets saved to the desktop. Couldn’t be easier. Windows’ Snipping Tool is useful, but it still takes a few extra seconds to get it activated.

Many screenshot tools will give you the option of a hotkey for taking a screenshot. I downloaded Lightshot and set Alt + Shift + 4 to take a selection screenshot and Alt + Shift + 5 to capture the whole screen. Much better. (In fact, some of the features are even better than the Mac tool.)

6. Messages

Because I have an iPhone, I use the Messages apps a lot. Being able to text to anyone else with an iPhone directly from my Mac was awesome. But there’s no way to do that from a PC. And as far as I can tell, there’s no good solution, either. I’ve heard of emulating an iPad and using the Messages apps from the desktop, but that seems like overkill.

The best option, if you really need this functionality, is to use a different desktop messaging app WhatsApp Desktop Client for Windows & Mac Is Only Second Best WhatsApp Desktop Client for Windows & Mac Is Only Second Best WhatsApp finally released an official desktop client for Windows and Mac. Notifications and keyboard shortcuts aside, it's identical to WhatsApp Web for your browser. We show you how it works and better alternatives. Read More . Hangouts, WhatsApp, Skype, and other options will work from the Windows desktop. It’s not as nice as using Messages, but there’s just no fix for this one.

7. Notes

Similarly, I use the Notes app on my iPhone a lot. I use it to keep track of board game scores, take notes on things I see, draft documents, and all sorts of other journalistic and personal uses. The ability to access and edit those notes and have them instantly synced between my Mac and my phone was priceless.

The best way I’ve found to do this on my PC is to access Notes via iCloud in a browser. (Go to icloud.com, sign in with your Apple ID, and launch Notes.) It’s not as good as having a separate app, but it’s close. The browser-based version provides the same functionality as the desktop app.

Alternatively, you could switch to Evernote or OneNote Evernote vs. OneNote: Which Note-Taking App Is Right for You? Evernote vs. OneNote: Which Note-Taking App Is Right for You? Evernote and OneNote are amazing note-taking apps. It's hard to pick between the two. We compared everything from interface to note organization to help you choose. What works best for you? Read More for your cross-platform note-taking needs.

8. Spotlight

Although it’s often neglected, Spotlight is one of the Mac’s best features Search More Efficiently In Mac OS X With Our Top Spotlight Tips Search More Efficiently In Mac OS X With Our Top Spotlight Tips Spotlight has been a killer Mac feature for years, with Cupertino regularly schooling Redmond in the art of desktop search. Here are a few tips to help you find more on your Mac. Read More . Not only does it let you search almost everything on your computer, but it’s also a calculator, weather app, unit converter, and more. I use it all the time on my Mac, and I’ve come to appreciate it even more since switching to Windows.

On Windows 10, Cortana serves a similar function. By hitting Win + Q (which isn’t nearly as ergonomic as Command + Space), you can pull up the bar and search for things on your computer or the Windows App Store. You can also do calculations and get weather information, but none of it is quite as slick as Spotlight.

There are some launcher apps that replicate the file-finding and file-opening power of Spotlight (like Launchy and Wox), but Cortana’s close enough for me.

9. Automator

Unjustly neglected, Automator is a hugely powerful tool 10 Automator Apps You Can Create in Under 5 Minutes [Mac] 10 Automator Apps You Can Create in Under 5 Minutes [Mac] Read More in any Mac user’s arsenal. I used it to create a shortcut so that I could right-click on any image file, select an option, and have that image instantly scaled to 670 pixels wide and converted to PNG. I used it all the time, and it saved a huge amount of time over opening the file with Pixelmator, resizing, and exporting it.

For my purposes, Image Resizer is a great replacement. It lets me right-click on an image and select the size I want to scale it to. It’s not quite as fast as the Automator setup I had, but it’s pretty close. It also doesn’t change the format, but I can likely find another solution for that.

10. Quicktime Screen Recording

Using Quicktime to record everything on my screen The 5 Best Screen Recorders for Capturing Mac OS X The 5 Best Screen Recorders for Capturing Mac OS X From Apple's QuickTime to the widely used ScreenFlow, screen recorders are useful for teaching and training purposes, communicating computer problems, and making presentations. Read More was useful a few times for creating demo videos. But it could also record what was happening on the screen of my iPad, a feature that many Mac users might not know about. When you’re in the tech tips business, this is a hugely useful feature.

The Windows 10 Xbox app can be used to record the screen — just hit Win + G to launch the Game Bar Windows 10 Is for Gamers: 6 Features You Will Love Windows 10 Is for Gamers: 6 Features You Will Love You will want to use Windows 10 for gaming! Whether it's streaming your Xbox One games to your PC, using the Xbox app, or enjoying high performance gaming with DirectX 12, Windows 10 enhances your... Read More and start recording. Recording my iPad screen is a bit more difficult, but X-Mirage lets me turn my PC into an AirPlay server. Using that, I can mirror my iOS device screens right on my screen. And X-Mirage has built-in recording capability. Not quite as slick as QuickTime, but it works.

Converting to Windows

Moving from one OS to another is never easy. You’ll always miss familiar features 4 Things About Windows That You'll Miss On A Mac 4 Things About Windows That You'll Miss On A Mac Thinking about switching over to a Mac? It's easy to find faults with Windows. But are you aware of the things you'll miss? Read More or frequently used software The Best Windows Software The Best Windows Software Windows is swimming in a sea of free applications. Which ones can you trust and which ones are the best? If you're unsure or need to solve a specific task, consult this list. Read More .

What are your favorite features on Mac? Have you been able to replicate them in Windows? Share the features you want and your best tips for getting them in the comments below!

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sheminecrafts · 7 years ago

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A flaw-by-flaw guide to Facebook’s new GDPR privacy changes

“Trust is really important and it’s clear that we have a lot of work to do to regain the trust of people on our service” he said, giving us deja vu about Mark Zuckerberg’s testimonies before congress. “We know that people won’t becomfortable using facebook if they don’t feel that their information is protected.”

Trouble At Each Step Of Facebook’s Privacy Consent Flow

There are a ton of small changes so we’ll lay out each with our criticisms.

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Sensitive Info

Facebook doesn’t let advertisers target you based on this sensitive info, which is good. The only exception is that in the US, political views alongside political Pages and Events you interact with inform your overarching personality categories that can be targeted with ads. But your only option here is either to remove any info you’ve shared in these categories so friends can’t see it, or allow Facebook to use it to personalize the site. There’s no option to keep this stuff on your profile but not let Facebook use it.

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Facial Recognition

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Data Collection Across The Web

A major concern that’s arisen in the wake of Zuckerberg’s testimonies is how Facebook uses data collected about you from around the web to target users with ads and optimize its service. While Facebook deputer chief privacy officer Rob Sherman echoed Zuckerberg in saying that users tell the company they prefer relevant ads, and that this data can help thwart hackers and scrapers, many users are unsettled by the offsite collection practices. Here, Facebook lets you block it from targeting you wih ads based on data about your browsing behavior on sites that show its Like and share buttons, conversion Pixel, or Audience Network ads. Here the issue is that there’s no way to stop Facebook from using that data from personalizing your News Feed or optimizing other parts of its service.

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New Terms Of Service

Facebook recently rewrote its Terms Of Service and Data Use Policy to be more explicit and easy to read. It didn’t make any significant changes other than noting the policy now applies to its subsidiaries like Instagram, WhatsApp, and Oculus. That’s all clearly explained here, which is nice. But the fact that the button to reject the new Terms Of Service isn’t even a button, it’s a tiny ‘see your options’ hyperlink shows how badly Facebook wants to avoid you closing your account. When Facebook’s product designer for the GDPR flow was asked if she thought this hyperlink was the best way to present the alternative to the big ‘I Accept’ button, she disingenuously said yes, eliciting scoffs from the room of reporters. It seems obvious that Facebook is trying to minimize the visibility of the path to account deletion rather than making it an obvious course of action if you don’t agree to its terms.

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Parental Consent

GDPR also implements new regulation about how teens are treated, specifically users between the ages of 13 (the minimum age required to sign up for Facebook) and 15. If users in this age range have shared their religious views, political views, or sexual preference, Facebook requires them to either remove it or get parental consent to keep it. But the system for attaining and verifying that parental consent is a joke.

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Privacy Shortcuts

To keep all users abreast of their privacy settings, Facebook has redesigned its Privacy Shortcuts in a colorful format that sticks out from the rest of the site. No complaints here.

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Download Your Information

And Facebook now lets you select certain categories of data, date ranges, JSON or HTML format, and image quality to download. That could make it quicker and easier if you just need a copy of a certain type of content but don’t need to export all your photos and videos for example. Thankfully, Facebook says you’ll be able to now export your media in a higher resolution than the old tool allowed.

A Higher Standard

Overall, it seems like Facebook is complying with the letter of GDPR law, but with questionable spirit. Sure, privacy is boring to a lot of people. Too little info and they feel confused and scared. Too many choices and screens and they feel overwhelmed and annoyed. Facebook struck the right balance in some places here. But the subtly pushy designs seem intended to push people away from changing their defaults in ways that could hamper Facebook’s mission and business.

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